Annotation:To all you ladies now at land
X:1 T:To All You Ladies Now at Land M:C L:1/8 R:Air S:Chappell – Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Bb F2|F2B2A2B2|cB AG F4|G4 F3E|DE F2B2F2|F2B2A2B2| cB AG F4|G4 F3E|DE F2B2||c2|d2B2c2A2|B2 AG F4| G4 F2 ED|E2C2e2c2|A2 GF G2 FE|DE F2 B2||
TO ALL YOU LADIES NOW AT LAND. English, Song Air (4/4 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. According to Chappell (1859), this ballad was written by Lord Buckhurst, later Earl of Dorset, when he was at sea during the first Dutch War of 1664-65. Samuel Pepys mentions the ballad in his diary entry of Jan. 2nd, 1664-5, and says "To my Lord Brouncker's by appointment, in the Piazza, Covent Garden; where I occasioned much mirth, with a ballet I brought with me, made from the seamen at sea to the ladies in town." The first verse goes:
To all you ladies now at land,
We men at sea indite;
But first yould have you understand
How hard it is to write.
The muses now, and Neptune too,
We must implore to write to you;
With a fa, la la la, la la, la la la la.